Six tough questions to ask of a vocation consultant

Ramp up your vocation efforts by hiring a good vocation consultant!

Is your vocation work overwhelming?

Don’t have the expertise in today’s complex world of social media and internet advertising?

You’ve probably thought about hiring someone who is savvy in the internet world, but who also knows the Catholic faith, and who knows religious communities as well. That’s why it’s well worth it to find a person, or agency, who has experience in finding qualified candidates for religious communities.

As a vocation director, you seldom have a lot of time for this work. You might be busy with other jobs, or just overwhelmed by learning all there is about this rather technical work. The Internet is constantly changing, and while lots of advice is out there, who has time to sort out which advice is outdated, which promotes conflicting techniques, and which is actually new and innovative?

Besides that, it might be good to work with someone else who will encourage and keep you on schedule!

Here’s how to go about hiring a vocation marketing expert.

What qualifiers should you look at?

Any Tom, Dick or Harry in the business marketing field is not always a good fit, because Catholic vocations are specialized! Your vocation marketing consultant needs to understand and have experience in Catholic vocation marketing. In the past, vocation work involved taking out an ad in the Diocesan newspaper or Catholic magazine, but is this where your demographic is?

Here’s a few tough questions to ask of a vocation marketing service.

Six tough questions for a vocation marketer:

1. How many years of experience do you have? Do you have knowledge of the Catholic faith and vocations in general? Do you know the mind of our prospective candidates?
2. How do you reach candidates? Do you draw from a list? Do you share your list with other communities?
3. Do you offer a one-time campaign, or an ongoing marketing program? Is work charged by an hourly rate, or on a per-project basis? How much per month?
4. Do you have testimonials from your clients? Will you guarantee a certain number of candidates or level of progress?
5. How personal will the service be? Will someone be there if I pick up the phone? Do you provide reports for your work? How much time and work is required on my end?
6. Is your program customizable? Will you use various approaches which will develop over time?

Two vocational objectives

The two main objectives of any marketing campaign are first of all, 1) to establish a presence – a brand image – and secondly, 2) to find actual, individual candidates who may be a good fit for your congregation or order.

Here are some techniques and programs that you might find among vocation marketing companies:

• Create an online presence with articles on your own blogs, or submit articles to other bloggers and Catholic media outlets.
• Launch a paid advertising campaign on Facebook, or elsewhere on the internet, that fits your budget.
• Bring in candidates and establish your presence through social media campaigns. Maintain a presence on social networks like Facebook.
• Make use of gimmicks, such as prizes, contests, and freebies. Use surveys and vocation quizzes to bring people in, and once they are connected to you, to engage them.
• Create a regular enewsletter to stay connected with those on your interest list.
• Maintain an attractive website that fully describes your community.

Best wishes in your vocation marketing efforts!

Contact us today.